Port Adelaide vs. Richmond – Round 8 match recap

Port Adelaide – 14.18 (102)

Richmond – 15.9 (99)

An inaccurate Port Adelaide side scraped home against Richmond on Saturday afternoon to win by just 3 points. Port led what was a reasonably close match for much of the day but a 7 goal to 3 third quarter in favour of Richmond gave the visitors a narrow lead going into the final term.

The home side etched away at the Tigers lead for the entirety of the last quarter but the visitors seemed to have an upset sealed. Enter Warren Treadrea with a contested mark and consequent goal, his 7^th for the day, to put Port in front with under a minute left on the clock.

Richmond got the final clearance from the middle following that goal and a desperate kick into the forward line followed. Enter that man Treadrea again with yet another contested mark, this time in his defensive 50, to save the day at both ends for the Power.

Turning points of the match

After a steady increase in Port Adelaide’s lead, Richmond suddenly piled on 4 straight goals in the third quarter to make a game of it. Port got one back soon after but another 3 followed for the Tigers to close out the term to make for a thrilling final term.

Key Players for Port Adelaide

Warren Treadrea – Having kicked 7.4 on three different opponents, and taking 11 marks (including the match saving one in defence with under 10 seconds left), its hard to go past his effort really.

Travis Boak – Played on Travis Tuck and although Tuck had more possessions Boak still had a good day out. He collected 25 possessions, 6 clearances, with 5 marks, 9 tackles and a goal to top it all off.

Domenic Cassisi – The captain also had a good day at the office collecting 23 disposals with 3 marks. Like Boak he also had a massive 9 tackles, 6 clearances and kicked a goal.

Key Players for Richmond

Shane Tuck – Ripped it up in the midfield with 31 disposals and 5 clearances with 7 tackles and 7 marks.

Mark Coughlan – Collected 28 possessions, 5 tackles and 7 marks to try and lift his team to a second win in 2009.

Robin Nahas – Some might ridicule me for putting the young guy here but having kicked 5 straight goals from just 8 disposals and 3 marks he really helped keep Richmond in it. He also had 5 tackles and kicked 3 of his goals in the first quarter to combat Treadrea’s 4.2.

Musings from the match

· Young Robin Nahas continues to impress fans.

· Warren Treadrea has now kicked 27 goals in 2009, equal first with Hawks duo Jarryd Roughead and Lance Franklin.

· Richmond is still on only 1 win.

· Port Adelaide is still in the top four.

· Kane Cornes should not have played with his shoulder injury.

· That same man brought up breakfast or lunch, or both, just after half time.

· Ben Cousins had his best game so far, with 24 touches and three clearances.

· Daniel Motlop had a quiet game, but then with Treadrea burning it up like he did its no surprise.

Supercoach news

Kane Cornes – His shoulder is clearly not 100% and should not have played in my opinion. His 30 points highlights how much it is affecting his game really.

Ben Cousins – Has now played three games scoring 70, 74 and 97 respectively. Is steadily improving and looks set to have a breakout triple figure score soon. Has a tendency to pull a muscle known as the hammy though so be wary of this if you intend to punt on him.

Robin Nahas – Is young and increasing in price rapidly. Probably too late to gain money from him but if he continues to score steadily he could be a good bench player.

Tags: Ben Cousins, Daniel Motlop, Domenic Cassisi, Kane Cornes, Mark Coughlan, Robin Nahas, Shane Tuck, Travis Boak, Warren Tredrea